


Frail Trust

by BID



Series: Open Ended OS [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Extremis, Jotun!Tony, M/M, artificial-jotun tony, skeptic avengers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-03
Updated: 2015-06-03
Packaged: 2018-04-02 14:46:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4063915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BID/pseuds/BID
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Loki's help Tony has modified Extremis to be able to also give him the control over ice as Jotuns have it, and incidentally that also changes the look of the skin. <br/>Up until now Tony has kept all this secret from the Team, but when fire giants attack and no battle strategy really works Tony throws caution into the wind and reveals his secret. </p>
<p>The Avengers reaction is less than desirable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Frail Trust

**Author's Note:**

> This is an old stub I wrote for a quite big idea, but nothing more than this ever came out of it. 
> 
> I'm cleaning out discontinued WIPs in the hope of being able to focus on writing the important things.
> 
> If you want to do something with it or hear more of the idea behind it comment or send a mail, enjoy!

They were fucked, so fucked, and _shit_!

The past two hours have been spent fighting against fire demons -- giants -- things from another realm, swartaheim or some shit, and why did they have to burn this fucking hot?!

No one of them, except for Thor maybe could go near the burning giants, and the Hulk _if he was there_ , and while Tony should be all right with the (finally) full dose of Extremis in his system, the armor actually couldn't resist long term contact with those things and to be honest he didn't feel like revealing just how much he had reprogrammed his body.

Bad enough that the others suspected he had done something, since a healing factor was rather hard to hide.

 

Tony's mind rapidly snapped back to reality as he suddenly lost altitude with something clinging to his back, and he heard Barton through the com yelling for Cap to help him.   
But seriously, two hours and barely any success.   
Tony was sick of it.   
Sick of hiding when he could _freeze_ them!

In his annoyance he ordered Jarvis to activate the release on the increasingly overheating armor, he felt the plates over his back melting together, and when the armor finally split apart and both, he and the fire giant, fell to the ground he heard the other Avengers crying out to him what he was doing, if he had gone insane.

No. 

No, he wasn't insane.

He knew what he could do, and he knew where the credit was due.

Loki, it had been Loki who had actually helped him, let him analyse his Frost Giant blood and gave reluctant permission to replicate the effects of elemental control over frost, what naturally affected the skin color when activated.

It was just his luck that a Jotun's abilities work mainly on instinct, and all those hours and days and weeks of training with the god, them both learning their limits of blue skin, would now pay off.

Tony knew that if he was a true Jotun (or anything closer to it) he'd be probably already be unconscious from the heat, but he wasn't and the extremis protected him from most of it.

Just a moment before he hit the ground he flipped the mental switch.   
Felt his skin thicken, and the raised, lighter pattern grow. It was rougher, and much more geometric than Loki's, whose patterns were made from fine swirling lines, his though was whole areas raised and bleached, in a way that reminded him of the arc reactor's blueprints.

When the others saw it there was a brief moment of silence on all channels, and then he heard Thor roar into the microphone how Tony dared to defy them all, how he dared to hide under humans as a monster, and seriously?!   
Just for that he wanted to clock that insensitive brute out.   
Loki was one, and Thor still called him brother.   
At least no one knew of their, by now, quite regular meetings, and he dare say relationship.  
Which absolutely _wasn't_ a relationship, haha, such a silly thing to say ... no.

 

"Shut up point break, now isn't the time. And I'm not really a Jotun if it makes you feel better. Concentrate on these fucking Calcifer things, ok?!" he yelled, dodging another of the demons and quickly grabbed through the flames for the things head and called upon the ice to smother the flames and blind it with frostbite.

And that was what actually turned the battle. 

Again and again he snuffed out the flames with ice, and crippled them in some way, then going off to the next and leaving the rest to the other Avengers.  
He practically lost himself in it, relying on instincts he didn't know he had and auto-piloting through the masses, moving through this battle with more feints and trickery than he usually would.   
Really, it should frighten him how easily the nature of (faked) Jotun genes could overthrow his usual muscle memory.

For now though, it was good. Fast, merciless and tricky was good, without that they'd probably have had a lot more causalities, maybe even lost.

 

When finally his body listened to him again properly, all Fire Giants taken care of, he stood in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by Ice statues of the last three that had faced him.

Tony's chest was heaving and hands leaning on his knees to support his upper body, he stood still for a mere minute.  
Though by the time he looked up he saw the others had surrounded him, them too exhausted and beaten, but looking at him wearily and mildly hostile, weapons ready.

"What does a vile Jotun breed like you do here! What have you done to friend Tony!" Thor demanded, the hand that held Mjölnir twitching slightly.

"Woha guys, slow down. It's me, ok? I experimented and came up with this handy thing and it solved our invasion from where the wild things are, ok?" Tony quickly answered and felt his hackles rise (literally, Jotun spine ridges were fucking mean), because seriously?   
No, _seriously_?!

Natasha narrowed her eyes and glared at him, "You moved very different from Stark."

"Yeah, well, armor less much?"

"Have you been some kind of mutant or Alien the whole time?" Barton hissed, never lowering that arrow from Tony's head, and he was sure that with the healing factor he'd survive it, but fuck, an arrow in his eye socket was the last thing he wanted.

But what really bugged him was that they suddenly treated him as something hostile just because he looked different, and how fucked up was that?!

"What if I was?" Tony drawled, "I'd still be Stark, right? Still the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist who let's you live in my tower, buys your food, makes you better weapons and fights as Iron Man, right?"  
He practically spat the last word, it made him really, irrationally angry that they made blue skin such a big deal, and he could feel frost bloom on his skin and the air around him cool down with it.  
Right, he should drop the Jotun skin, but fuck it, if him being not human would be an issue that he might as well stay like this, fuck them and their stupid prejudice.

"If you need to know," he continued as he was only met with silence, " I haven't been 'human' since I got the reactor in my chest, and I can do this," he let ice grow in his hand, "since November. Problem? No? Great, I'm going home." and with those words he stalked through their circle over to where his armor lay. He put the slightly immobile suit back on while feeling their stares burn against his still blue skin.

"Stark, you can't leave now, you need to be debriefed!" he heard the Captain call after him, and promptly contered just before he flew off: 

"Since when do I do what I'm supposed to?!"

 

Jarvis greeted him from the HUD and congratulated him to a successful battle in his Jotun skin, and confirmed that he had everything on tape to review later.

"Also," the AI continued, "Mister Laufeyson is currently in the Malibu mansion and very 'agitated' that you have revealed your Jotun skin. Referencing to former reactions though I conclude that he is very, _very_ worried. Possibly about the Avengers and Shields reaction. Not without reason if I dare say. "


End file.
